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All Over But the Crowing

The Tournament of Books has ended, with Toni Morrison winning the Rooster for A Mercy, making her the first triple crown winner (Nobel, Pulitzer, Rooster) in the Tournament’s history. This interesting quote from Kevin Guilfoyle reacts to criticism from some readers who felt that the finalists were too much from “the center of the board,” and not cutting edge enough:

To Mr. Chee’s point, people don’t read books anymore. Smart people, dumb people. Educated people, uneducated people. Forget Harry Potter, most people don’t read fiction for pleasure, at all. And so to bunch your Underoos because a goofball internet award didn’t come up with a more cutting-edge author to give its chicken to is a little like complaining that the solution to today’s Sudoku doesn’t require calculus.

Guilfoyle’s view, while gloomy, is shared by many, and can no doubt be backed up with a lot of statistics. (He’s a novelist — maybe sales of his books are sluggish). But a stroll through the Library (or the nearest Barnes & Noble, for that matter) gives me hope.